www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Church Bake sales!!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I wanted to ask everyone whose church had fundraisers and other ways to help our churches out. One of the parishes I go to is an OCA parish on the out skirts of town, the parish is smaller than my little bigelow house, haha. I talked to the priest about the parishioners and the parish life. It is your typical small town and not many parishioners attending due to over the years companies closed and people died off. Now there is only about 3-5 people attending twice a month.

I wanted to ask the priest if I could help the church and the parishioners by having a bake sale and a pirogie sale which is a lot of work! I know I can do it and I enjoy doint it too. I thought this would be a good way for others in the area to experience or get a taste of our culture, our heritage and our faith. Let me know what everybody thinks. I trying to figure out plans in doing this. Let me know!
Thanks,
Christian

Pascha will be here before you know it. How about baking Paschas for sale. Also, nut rolls, I don't know if the cost of nuts right now would make that prohibitive or not. We use to make a huge profit off of them up home.

NUN BETTER
Who says you can't start small
http://www.religionnews.com/index.p...cess_in_fresh_batches_of_snickerdoodles/

Pani Rose thankyou for the advice, I wasn't thinking about Pascha, it will be coming so fast. Yes, start out small because I would rather run out of items, then to have over abundance. Yet, provide reading materials or other things to represent even our heritage, bc our culture and religion tie together very well. Since it is winter time, the church sold the rectory house and the basement is just used for the heater and storage. The church still has outhouses and the men/women sit on separate sides too. I thought about having the sale in the small vestibule, having the church open for tours and questions just like the other churches located in the town.
Once again thanks,
Christian

Our Church has run a very successful cookie sale for four years. We also do nut rolls and special breads at Pascha. Here are pictures from the most recent sale -- it is a lot of work, but it's work everyone can help in, and cookies make people happy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lady_halla/sets/72157611190092887/

Dearest Pooklaroux,

Thank you for sharing the lovely photos of your church's awesome looking Christmas cookie sale!!

Kindest Regards,
Alice

Geesss Pooklaroux,

I put on pounds just looking

Congrats on a job well done!

Our womens society made Chocolate Roulage for Christmas this year since the Baclava (spelling here) was just too prohibitive in cost. They did really well with it. They sold them for $20 each and had a very good responce. The funds went towards providing Christmas for several shelters in town.

We have a new blog too, not much on there, but there are some pictures of the sweets from our food festival. One of the most popular things in the zalabia (spelling) it is an Arabic doughnut. At $2 each.

Now the Russians and Slavs make an awesome one too
http://societyofstanne.blogspot.com/

We will find out about how much we brought in for the church this weekend, but from all appearances, it was at least as well attended as last year, and we made more cookies, and had less left over -- even in this economy -- Praise God!

I am not usually big on sweets, but the cookies our ladies make are just wonderful. This year my big find was something called a "Rum Cracker Bread" cookie, Father also called it a "Deer Spine" cookie, and told me it was Hungarian. No chance in the world I could make it on my own, even with a recipe, I am a one trick pony as far as cookie making goes, and I am just happy that people like my spice cookies. They are very basic. This year, since I was laid off and had time, I was able to assist in helping other people make cookies -- I follow directions really well, but I am not at all certain I could make them on my own. Also, the professional Kitchen Aid mixers we're blessed to have in the parish hall kitchen are marvelous machines!

But anyway, the cookie sale is wonderful because no one in my family does the delicious old fashioned cookies any more, and the ladies of my parish really know how to pull out all the stops in baking cookies. I always find a new favorite, and it's always an old traditional cookie that I have just never had before!

It is a lot of work -- a lot of people put in real time and effort to make the sale happen, so you have to have a parish that is willing to roll up its sleeves and get to work, but it was a happy day, a joyful day of work. Father reminded us -- another way we can evangelize, by being welcoming and friendly and offering good eats. I told everyone I know about our cookie sale, and I was absolutely astonished at how many people knew of my Church as the "one with the gold dome that sells pierogies". No kidding the way to some people's hearts are through their stomachs!

Pani Rose, I looked at the Society of St Anne blog -- the pictures of your food fest looked great too! and also the display with stained glass ornaments -- did someone in your parish make those?

What a great success and May God Grant your parish many years. Thankyou so much for sharing, I had so much motivation and will power that I can do this. The priest got back to me, he told me the church is financially well, but the attendance of the parishioners is very little. He said it sounded good to share with others in the town our culture and faith by having this. Since lent will be here before you know it, he mentioned to me about meeting with the clergy from other churches and sharing our faith as well as church tours. In the past, this worked out well, til the clergy lost communication. These are all wonderful ideas.